Digital technology enables more and more consumers to access and enjoy a wide variety of personal and commercial digital media content. This digital media content may take the form of home videos, Hollywood movies, digital photos, music, television and more. Consumers gain access to commercially developed digital media content through sources such as over-the-air television, cable television, and satellite television. Consumers may also download or otherwise access digital media content files via the Internet or by purchasing digital video discs (DVDs), compact discs (CDs), etc. Other kinds of digital media content files may be personally created by consumers utilizing digital cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs), computers and other digital recording devices.
The huge variety of stationary and portable media devices available in the marketplace enables a consumer to enjoy these media files at home, at work, in their automobiles, or just about anywhere. Consumers record HDTV programs on their DVRs, download MP3 files to listen to on their iPods®, swap JPEG photos taken with their digital cameras, and view DVDs on car-mounted DVD players.
Because of this explosion in available media files and devices to record and play them back, a consumer typically must learn to operate and navigate several different technology platforms and systems. For example, learning to program a DVR to record a television program can be significantly different than learning to operating an MP3 player. User interfaces, displays, menus and other navigation and access tools for digital media devices and players vary from device to device and platform to platform.
Presently, there have been two main approaches to making the user interfaces for a variety of different digital media devices easier to learn and operate. One approach is to provide a universal wireless remote control device that serves as a common controller for multiple devices and performs any necessary translation of remote control commands among differing, heterogeneous digital media devices. Examples of these kinds of universal remote control devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,407,779 and U.S. Publ. Patent Appl. No. 2006/0152401 A1. The other approach is to use a common software browser or virtual software interface that can be displayed by all of the digital media devices with appropriate software infrastructure to integrate the operation of various heterogeneous digital media devices into a common framework. Examples of these kinds of common browser interface are described in U.S. Publ. Patent Appl. No. 2005/0289266 A1 and PCT Publ. No. WO 2006/022772 A2.
While the approach of a universal remote control addresses the problem of learning the buttons or pointing devices required to manually operate different kinds of digital media devices, the universal remote control cannot alter the way in which user interfaces are displayed on the various heterogeneous digital media devices under its control. Consequently, the user must learn to navigate a variety of different user interfaces on the different heterogeneous digital media devices. The approach of providing a common software browser can address the challenge of needing to learn a variety of different user interfaces; however, the common software browser often is an overkill for the amount of control and user interface information needed to operate a given digital media device, such as a personal media player and the amount of technology and software required to be provided for those devices. Perhaps more problematic is the challenge of formatting a common browser screen interface across different size screens for different kinds of digital media players.
Therefore, a need exists for a common user interface that can operate consistently across multiple heterogeneous technology platforms for digital media devices, presenting a common display to a user regardless of the type of digital media content or digital media device.